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While We're Gone: Mid-Western Desert
5 Million Years in the future...and the world's been given the cold shoulder by another Ice Age. We've already seen the insane ways its affected Europe, the Mediterranean, and South America, but what about North America? Surely they're doing okay in spite the conditions, right? Wrong!' '''The Arctic ice caps reached for more than just Paris, they also went as far south as Canada! The wheat belt, now deprived of live-giving rain, became a cold, bleak desert. To give you a better idea, imagine the Gobi Desert, and you'll get what happened here Regardless, despite what I just said, that doesn't mean it's any more lifeless than our other icy lands across the pond. It's just that whatever lives here must be prepared for the worst this desert has to offer. One of these is an old favorite from South America: the '''Desert Rattleback'. Much like the Smilodons and terror birds of the first Ice Age thousands of years ago, these armored pine cone rodents traveled from the Amazon grasslands to try and survive elsewhere. However, unlike their cousins down south, these Rattlebacks have looser scales, and thicker eyelashes that protect their eyes from the constant, blinding sandstorms that plague where was once Kansas and Texas. But it's more than just scales that this subspecies has got up its sleeve, it also has a tail that stores fast during times of famine (which is essentially every other week). And they'll need all the luck they can get, because predators aren't above attacking anything that moves! Up to, and including a rather...unusual lizard with an equally unusual way of surviving. Enter the predatory lizard called Rockprowler; a descendant of the gila monster, and resident top predator of these scrublands. This large lizard is roughly the size of crocodile, and has a much more powerful bite than its ancestors. But that's not what makes this lizard so strange; no, it's more of its structure. See, normal lizards aren't good at surviving in colder climates, but this one gained an old trick from way back when: Its vertebrae extended and skin with many blood vessels fill the skin and absorb as much heat from the Ice Age sunlight as possible. In short, it became perhaps not a true synapsid, but a close facsimile thereof. Fortunately for both Rattlebacks, and any potential prey items, they don't need to eat often, able to store energy in its back and tail to last for several months if necessary. On top of this, they're one of the few reptile species that nurture their young, this being a rough environment even for these hardy lizards. And what a menagerie to consume, as well; while the selection's not quite as diverse as the grasslands of South America, there are several notable prey items to choose from, including a cousin to the Grasspecker, the Shrubpecker. Relative of the Roadrunner, this bird mainly eats plants but will occasionally supplement its diet with meat. Although looking like the Grasspecker down south, they are distantly related. Roadrunners, despite being ground birds, are actually related to cuckoo birds. They can run as fast as an Olympic sprinter, and have a thicker feather count than their ancestors to cope with the cold winds. And the birds don't stop here; some have even gone underground, and not Velvet Underground, either. Enter the Spink, a quail descendant with the behavior of a termite or mole rat. By that, I mean that the male and female workers are born sterile, so their only purpose in life is to dig to find the water rich tubers. Queens and Kings are constantly breeding and at a certain time of year, fertile males and females leave the home nest to find mates from different colonies and start new colonies elsewhere in the desert. But they can only do this at night, as the day is patrolled not just by Rockprowlers, but by something no one in their right mind would suspect; a giant, diurnal bat called a Deathgleaner. And let me tell you, they redefine the phrase, "We can't stop here, this is bat country."! They patrol the skies during the day, hunting anything small and weak that they come across, be it Spink, Shrubpecker, or baby Rockprowlers and Rattlebacks. However, say for the Rattlebacks, there is one other creature that even the Rockprowlers can't really attack as adults. And that is the Desert Rockadillo, a descendant of the armadillos that are common around the southern United States, South America and as far north as Illinois. Able to survive the change surprisingly well, being used to desert conditions already, the lack of major competition gave them an excuse to get bigger. Now resembling a similar physique to some of its Ice Age relatives, such as the Doedicurus and Glyptodon, these large insectivores dig into the sand similarly to the Rattleback. But instead of tubers, it instead searches for ants, beetles other insects hiding underground. Its armor plating protects it from the violent sandstorms that ravage the countryside, and also keeps them safe from aerial hunters such as the Deathgleaner. The only major enemy it has is when it's young, when its armor hasn't fully developed. Rockadillos give birth to live young, usually one to two per litter. The young dillos stay close to mother til they're about 4 years old, and then they head off on their own to search for food and avoid predators. In summation, to quote The Future is Wild directly: 'In 5 Million Years time, this certainly doesn't look like Kansas anymore!', but you can rest assured that come what may, for these bizarre beasties, there's no place like home! Category:While We're Gone Category:Future Earth Category:5 Million Years Category:Mid-Western Desert